Presently, during game play amongst several clients of a computer network, clients communicate directly with the server. The central server processes data from every client relaying this data to all other clients so that several clients in the network can engage in game play with each other through a central server. The central server's ability to communicate data amongst several clients is limited by bandwidth, and so communication outside of game play data is limited.
Aside from game play data, clients may want to communicate other information to each other without having to go through a bandwidth-limited central server. Examples of such communication may include voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), bit torrents, video data, file sharing, and data streaming. By allowing clients to communicate amongst each other without the need of a central server, some of the central server's responsibilities may be offloaded to the clients.
A peer-to-peer network is established when a host is determined amongst the numerous clients participating in the P2P network. The host takes the duty of a central server and directs communication amongst clients (hereinafter referred to as peers when referencing non-hosts in a P2P network).
It is within this context the embodiments of the present invention arise.